02:33 - VIGJust sayin' I remember nikarg's Sodom review on the front page, that album was like 30 years old

02:27 - ScreamingSteelUSTechnically, Che's Manunkind review was too old to be featured on the front page. That was a special exception; usually, we prefer to keep our reviews within three-to-four months, with six months as an absolute cutoff.

02:14 - VIG@Radu Of course! I don't think it's too old to be featured on the front page. Look at Che's Manunkind review

00:09 - RaduPPublished a review for an album that's a bit too old to be featured on the front page, but you guys will read it, right? [link]

It was about time! Finally, in its 22nd year of existence, the biggest metal festival in the world will welcome the Prince of Darkness, one of the founders of the music we have all come to love: Ozzy Osbourne will headline Wacken Open Air 2011!
Ozzy's performance at Wacken will be his only German festival show in 2011. The metal opera Avantasia take it even further and will make their performance at Wacken Open Air their only show in 2011 worldwide! Witnessing Tobias Sammet (Edguy) and his myriad of guests in front of tens of thousands of fans under the open sky certainly isn't your everyday concert experience.
And of course there's also American power metallers Iced Earth who will be performing for the very last time with legendary singer Matt Barlow.

But these three acts aren't the only ones with exclusive performances: NWOBHM legends Judas Priest, who are currently on their last world tour ever, TNBM front-runners Mayhem and Australian hard rockers Airbourne will also perform their only German festival shows at Wacken Open Air, and for Trivium it will even be their only festival show on European soil in 2011.

But even if you don't care for either of these bands, Wacken once again offers a wide array of metal styles for almost everyone, like power metal (e.g. Blind Guardian), extreme power/melodeath metal (e.g. Children Of Bodom), thrash metal (e.g. Kreator), death metal (e.g. Kataklysm), rock'n'roll (e.g. Motörhead), glam metal (e.g. Crashdïet), j-rock (Dir En Grey), folk metal (e.g. Moonsorrow), stoner (Kyuss Lives!) and then some. For a complete listing of all 120+ bands, filled to the brim with big names of the scene, you'll only have to scroll down.

Wacken Open Air takes place in - surprise! - Wacken in Northern Germany, a small village with merely 2,000 inhabitants on 361 days of the year. The town is located 10 km north of Itzehoe and 50 km northwest of Hamburg. There will be shuttle buses from the festival site to the train station in Itzehoe as well as to the airports in Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. For more info on getting there and away check the festival page here.

The festival is officially sold out since February, but some tour operators (e.g. Metal Train for Germany, Bock Tours for the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Argon Events for the UK) still have some coach trip/festival ticket packages in store. More tour operators can be found here.

Another way to acquire your ticket would be the ticket exchange in the official forum which aims for eliminating the black marketing going on on eBay and other auctioning sites, and reducing the risk of acquiring fake tickets. In this exchange the Wacken staff supervises the ticket prices and acts as trust which means that the seller sends the ticket(s) to the staff who verifies the authenticity of the ticket(s) and reports it to the buyer. After the buyer has transferred the money to the seller, the Wacken staff will pass on the ticket(s) to the buyer. More information on this model can be found here (in English) and here (in German).

a desperate situation
forced to retaliation,
the task ahead a burden,
my wallet will suffer, that's for certain.

i think i'm gonna be there, as it's by far the only realistic shot i can get to see IE live with Barlow for a few years (and it's not even a headlining slot i think) so i'm gonna have to do it. just now i'm posting a message on the ticket exchange forum in the "will buy ticket" section.

EDIT: after 4 years of listening to this band, i'm finally able to catch them in concert in my home city in november. i'm happy they announced this, but this complicates things with me attending Wacken even more: now i'll be able to get to a headlining show (even though it's with this other guy, i'm mostly there for Schaffer's guitar playing), so there are few more reasons to attend Wacken at all. i shall ponder this at length.

----
Sing me a song, you're a singer
Do me a wrong, you're a bringer of evil.

They announced the times. It's the most messed up it's ever been for me in Wacken. Using their running order tool, basically all three days for me are red.
I'm even thinking about emailing them, they put Iced Earth and Shining in the same slot. Don't know what they've been thinking again but that is seriously messed up!

They announced the times. It's the most messed up it's ever been for me in Wacken. Using their running order tool, basically all three days for me are red.
I'm even thinking about emailing them, they put Iced Earth and Shining in the same slot. Don't know what they've been thinking again but that is seriously messed up!

Shining and Iced Earth at the same time in different tents/stages? That makes sense cause musically they are totally different. Unless you mean Wacken's tool has them on at the same stage at the same time.

----Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

They announced the times. It's the most messed up it's ever been for me in Wacken. Using their running order tool, basically all three days for me are red.
I'm even thinking about emailing them, they put Iced Earth and Shining in the same slot. Don't know what they've been thinking again but that is seriously messed up!

Shining and Iced Earth at the same time in different tents/stages? That makes sense cause musically they are totally different. Unless you mean Wacken's tool has them on at the same stage at the same time.

Musically that may make sense but it's not like people who go to a festival only watch bands from one genre. Now people can decide between seeing a band that literally never plays in Germany and one that will never ever play with that singer again. That is not cool!
Anyway, I did email them asking to rethink that. Maybe they will. If not, I am disappoint!

I'm pretty sure it would be near impossible to make a running order suiting me that wouldn't at least create some clashes, but Saturday has only that! Thursday on the other hand is perfect with time to eat and drink in between concerts

No clashes on Wednesday or Thursday. Actually I've been to festivals with worse scheduling for me. The only painful clash is Iced Earth vs Shining.

Btw, I've made a running order for my own use as I prefer knowing what bands play at any given time and not what bands play at any given stage. Might be of use for some of you guys as well, so feel free to print it out

I'm probably going to meet up with Promonex. Any other Metalstormer meetings arranged?

The Dude abides, man!

We usually try to meet at the beergarden round 6pm on wednesday. Last year that failed because Promonex was occupied and Valentin didn't show up. But this year I'm positive, we can make it

hey, i was also occupied.. with Promonex, obviously ( )

Too occupied to tell me obviously. But it's OK, I don't mind waiting in the rain for two hours. With bare feet. Singing to myself.

I'm establishing a small "Dude Camp" in my area. If I'm there that early on Wednesday, I'll see if I can make it out to the beer garden with my other Dudes. Your also welcome to visit Dude Camp and write on the poster.

I take it there was no meeting cause Daniel (Promonex) didn't fuckin' write me! lol

That or some other unknown supernatural event occurred. I arrived real fuckin' late though, got to the beergarden around 1900. We'd been sitting in traffic for two hours. We left this morning around 0700 though. So... HA!

I take it there was no meeting cause Daniel (Promonex) didn't fuckin' write me! lol

That or some other unknown supernatural event occurred. I arrived real fuckin' late though, got to the beergarden around 1900. We'd been sitting in traffic for two hours. We left this morning around 0700 though. So... HA!

There was one. We were looking out for you for a while but Promonex said you'd know how to contact him.

I take it there was no meeting cause Daniel (Promonex) didn't fuckin' write me! lol

That or some other unknown supernatural event occurred. I arrived real fuckin' late though, got to the beergarden around 1900. We'd been sitting in traffic for two hours. We left this morning around 0700 though. So... HA!

There was one. We were looking out for you for a while but Promonex said you'd know how to contact him.

Actually he said that he forgot to write down The Dude's mobile number and that he was hoping that The Dude still had Promonex's number.

----
All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu... This is the truth! This is my belief! ...At least for now.
- The Mystery of Life, Vol. 841 Ch. 26

I take it there was no meeting cause Daniel (Promonex) didn't fuckin' write me! lol

That or some other unknown supernatural event occurred. I arrived real fuckin' late though, got to the beergarden around 1900. We'd been sitting in traffic for two hours. We left this morning around 0700 though. So... HA!

There was one. We were looking out for you for a while but Promonex said you'd know how to contact him.

Actually he said that he forgot to write down The Dude's mobile number and that he was hoping that The Dude still had Promonex's number.

Dude, I don't think I ever had your number, lol. Guess it'll have to wait until the big 25th Wacken. I saw a few other Dudes in bathrobes though! Fuckin' groovy, man. They weren't too good with the whole quote thing though, lol. I've got Big Lebowski DOWN.

In the end obviously i didn't go, but what was really weird i received some messages from you guys literally the moment i arrived in Germany last tuesday: Promonex (i think) was saying he was going to catch Apocalyptica or something, and that maybe you can meet there. then when i closed the message window and tried to see it again i couldn't find it

there were two hot redheads on that flight with Wacken shirts too, so for a moment there i thought "ahh, you bastards, why is everyone making me come to Wacken??!"

----
Sing me a song, you're a singer
Do me a wrong, you're a bringer of evil.